New Delhi, April 29 -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act - making it harder for minorities to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory under the landmark civil rights law - in a victory for Louisiana Republicans and President Donald Trump's administration.

The justices, in a 6-3 ruling powered by the court's conservative members, blocked an electoral map that had given the Louisiana a second Black-majority congressional district. The court's three liberal justices and some legal experts denounced the decision as hollowing out Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which Congress enacted to bar electoral maps that would result in diluting the clout of minority voters.

The ruling w...